[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 64 (Thursday, May 9, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S4952]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    MEDICARE REIMBURSEMENTS FOR TREATMENT OF SOME MEDICARE-ELIGIBLE 
                                VETERANS

 Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I'm pleased and honored to 
announce my intention to introduce legislation in the coming days which 
I believe will demonstrate the cost effectiveness and feasibility of 
Medicare reimbursement to the Department of Veterans Affairs [VA] for 
treatment of some medicare-eligible veterans at VA health care 
facilities.
  There are two very important reasons I intend to introduce and press 
for passage of this legislation which I would like to briefly outline. 
First, reforming veterans' health care is one of my top priorities. I 
strongly believe that if we don't reform the archaic and arcane rules 
governing veterans access to VA medical care, it will be impossible for 
the VA to provide America's veterans with 21st Century health care. To 
accomplish this, the VA must be authorized to receive Medicare 
reimbursements for treatment of some Medicare-eligible veterans. Two 
different proposals prepared by major veterans service organizations 
(VSO's) provide that the VA be authorized to receive Medicare 
reimbursement for treating Medicare-eligible veterans. The GAO, 
however, has questioned both the feasibility and cost of providing 
Medicare reimbursement to the VA. While I lean toward the VSOs' view 
that Medicare reimbursement would be both feasible and cost-effective, 
the only way to prove this is by means of a demonstration project that 
will determine both the feasibility and cost effectiveness of Medicare 
subvention. That is precisely what my legislation will authorize.
  Second, I believe that because the VA is facing and will likely 
continue to face severe funding constraints that will reduce its 
capabilities to provide access to quality health care, the VA will be 
under strong pressures to deny health care to Medicare-eligible 
veterans who are not in the mandatory category for outpatient or 
inpatient treatment. For many years VA medical costs have lagged behind 
medical cost inflation and under the budget resolution adopted by 
Congress last year the VA medical care budget would be frozen for 7 
years, lagging behind overall inflation and probably even further 
behind medical cost inflation. As a consequence, the VA may be 
compelled to ration care, with veterans 65 and over one of the groups 
likely to be affected. Even before the VA was faced with a flat health 
care budget, many of its facilities were compelled to resort to 
rationing. Despite the bold and imaginative efforts of Secretary of 
Veterans Affairs Jesse Brown and his Under Secretary for Health Ken 
Kizer to modernize, streamline and decentralize VA health care, a flat 
VA health care budget for 7 years can only lead to more extensive 
rationing of health care for veterans. This will further fray our 
solemn contract with the men and women who selflessly defended our 
country.
  Mr. President, the bill I am planning to introduce is intended to 
ensure that our aging veterans population is not denied access to VA 
health care at a time when they need it most. Improving and 
safeguarding health care for our country's veterans should be a 
priority issue for my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. I hope all 
of my colleagues will carefully review my bill after it is introduced 
and will carefully consider supporting it.

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